About the Role

This roles is based in the Financial Planning & Reporting Team within Finance & Business Services in Milton Keynes. Reporting to the Management Accountant the successful candidates will support team members in the preparation and completion of the teams outputs, including the production of Budgets, the completion of the TRAC return and other outputs to the University’s senior managers and governance committees. 

Key Responsibilities

• Preparation and completion of returns to external Government funding bodies
• Support in the production of papers for the University’s senior managers and internal University governance committees
• Provide pro-active support to senior staff, for strategic planning and for operational review. This may include the development of management information, processes and systems to support decision making at strategic and operational levels.
• Forecast & budgeting areas of income & expenditure for input into the University’s Quarterly Management Accounts
• Provide financial support to particular areas of activity which require a significant financial input, particularly where there are complex or non-standard requirements.

Skills and Experience

Essential:

• Experience of data analysis, interpretation, reconciliation, and presentation of financial data and working with senior members of staff.
• Intermediate to advanced level Excel experience
• Extensive Management and financial accounting experience.  
• A flexible approach, with a track record in meeting deadlines
• Actively studying towards ACCA / CIMA Qualification 
• Excellent understanding of major accounting package and office IT systems.
• Experience of using SAP or a similar ERP finance system would be desirable
• Excellent stakeholder management skills.
• Excellent communication and written skills.
• Excellent knowledge and understanding of budget planning, forecasting and monitoring and financial accountancy processes.
• Ability to work under own initiative, manage multiple tasks and prioritise workload to deliver outputs to required standard and timescale

Desirable:

• Varied accounting experience across a wide range of duties and mix of public and private sectors
• Experience of working in a large complex organisation
• Negotiation skills and experience

Essential Requirements

Work location 
It is anticipated that a hybrid working pattern can be adopted for this role, where you can work from home and the office. However, as this role is contractually aligned to our Milton Keynes office it is expected that some attendance in the office will be required when necessary and in response to business needs. We’d expect you to be predominantly in the office whilst learning the role and then twice a week thereafter.   

How to apply
To apply for this role please submit the following as separate documents;

• CV 
• Supporting statement, up to 1,000 words, you should set out in your statement why you’re interested in this role and provide examples of where your skills and experience meet the required competencies for this role as detailed in the job and person specification.

We may close this job advert earlier than the published closing date where a satisfactory number of applications are received. We would therefore encourage early applications.